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Sadly couldn't make this one, as I had a prior commitment with another Canadian — Uncle Neil — back in Chicago. Heard from a couple sources that it was a bit of an odd gig, though, in the sense that it was theoretically part of the "August Evening With..." tour and thus people thought that the usual two-set, 30-something-song performance was forthcoming. But instead it simply turned into a "standard" set — and kind of a short one at that — with a brief encore. I guess more than a few attendees were miffed, including our resident Kentuckian. Hopefully he'll chime in with a few more

SOMEONE DID MENTION IT, NOT IN THAT WAY EXACTLY BUT STILL. HE GOT THE HUMOUR I THINK, BUT STILL WAS MOST LIKELY NOT IN THE JOKIEST OF MOODS. FFS! Pat and the Penguins. Good doo-wop group, or so I hear. (Sea)-Ta(c) Airport.

Birthdays…who needs ‘em? Amirite? I write this as someone whose own birthday is rapidly approaching, but even if Jeff hadn’t already expressed his indifference toward his birthday on his most recent Substack post, I think he would probably be inclined to agree after he spent his 58th working with Wilco on the second night of a two-night stand at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. After taking the stage to a front row of people wearing party hats, blowing noisemakers and holding up letters spelling out “Happy Birthday, Jeff” — I’m not even going to get into the clueless local televis

I don’t know how well this will work, but here’s a shot of Jeff holding the aforementioned bread…

Imagine, if you will, a movie poster from a 1950s sci-fi B-movie called “The Sourdough That Took Over Seattle” or something like that with a sourdough round perhaps taking the place of a flying saucer and descending upon, say, Woodland Park Zoo. I can see it, and I think it could be a hit! (Or maybe I’ve just gone to too many shows now and I’m starting to go a little crazy. Who can say?) Anyway, I bring up this wacky image because on the first night of two sold-out shows by Jeff and his bandmates at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, a sourdough round stamped with “Wilco” did indeed thre

Tony or Joe?

Have we reached that point in a given tour when it’s not so much about what songs Jeff and his bandmates play as much as how they play them? It’s just one schlub’s opinion, of course, but I kind of think we have — and for one night anyway, I’m here for it. It’s liberating, at least once in a while, to just enjoy the actual performance itself and be present for each moment and not worry so much about repertoire or anything else. So it was at the scenic KettleHouse Amphitheater, a 4,000-capacity outdoor venue on the banks of the Blackfoot River east of Missoula. Like many amphitheate

From an amphitheater near a beach on Long Island to the top of a mountain in Wyoming to a zoo in Seattle, I guess there’s just about no type of place that Wilco isn’t covering on this coast-to-coast “An August Evening With…” tour. And for tonight’s stop, we bring you to a park in the middle of a small city in Utah that the band has never played before in more than 30 years of touring. To be fair, Ogden is only about a 45-minute drive north of Salt Lake City, where Jeff and his bandmates have played many times over the years and I’m sure that plenty of folks at tonight’s show had pr

I knew I shouldn’t have cut out that bit about the teensy (A cup?) teeter-totter…

If a rock band plays a show on top of a mountain and hardly anyone stays until the end to see it, does it even count? To paraphrase that old philosophical conundrum, that question must have entered Jeff’s mind during the later stages of Wilco’s show atop Snow King Mountain tonight when he looked out at what remained of the audience and realized that a significant portion of it had split to catch the gondola back to the base. Let’s rewind a bit to set the scene. As part of a summer series of concerts atop the nearly 8,000-foot peak, Wilco’s latest stop on its “An August Evening With

Now this was a show I would have loved to have made it to because I'm sure Vail is lovely in the summer and I used to go there in the winter with my family many moons ago. Anyway, when it comes to Wilco shows in Vail, I always think of the previous one in December 2012 (as part of the Vail Snow Daze festival) when the temperature was about 10 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind chill was maybe -10. I honestly don't know how anyone who had to play a stringed instrument made music come out of one that night. Who had the brilliant idea to play a nighttime outdoor show in the mountains in December?

More housekeeping, since I wasn't able to make it to Mission Ballroom this time around. It's a fairly large indoor venue of the sort that you'll find in many cities these days with a wide general admission floor and reserved seating (I think) in the mezzanine level. And being a Saturday night, I'm sure there was quite a lively crowd in attendance...hopefully someone will chime in with some more thoughts/observations/etc. For now, here was complete setlist as played, according to the Wilcoworld minders (having seen photos of the printed setlists on social media, I feel fairly confid

Couldn't make it to KC this time, which is unfortunate for my barbecue-loving stomach as well as my penchant for record shopping whilst on tour. But I feel like Wilco has pretty much found a home in the city with this gig at the Midland being its fourth show there since 2017 (and fifth in KC overall since then, if you count a short performance backstage at Crossroads that was live streamed after the band's co-headlining performance with Sleater-Kinney there in 2021 got wiped out due to inclement weather). Anyway, if anyone who attended this outing at the Midland is so inclined to p

Just catching up on some housekeeping duties here, since I had to sit this one out. I don't expect anyone on here to have attended this show in an extremely tertiary market, but if anyone did and feels like chiming in, please do. I mainly am wondering if Jeff had anything to say about the band's last appearance (I'm pretty sure) in Springfield. When I saw the southwestern Missouri city on the list of tour stops for this "August Evening With..." run, my first thought was that it only took about 20 years for the band to get back there after one of the most infamous incidents in Wilco

Well, sadly, I had to sit this one out, so I can't offer any firsthand reportage. But I do know that at least one VCer was there who can, so hopefully that person will chime in at some point and give us some more details. I have actually been to the (very creatively named) Factory before, though, so I know that it's a relatively spacious indoor venue outside of St. Louis with a wide, open floor. Here was the complete setlist, as played, according to the good folks over at Wilcoworld (as usual, their system seems unable to delineate where the set break happens but I'm going to rely

Well, well, well...hearty congratulations on your 100th! You didn't mention that approaching milestone when we chatted the other night. Definitely one to remember, then! And thanks for the slight clarification on my post. I corrected it to what I meant to write, which is it was Wilco's second stint at the Salt Shed in as many summers (their third show there in total, of course).

Oh yeah, the Jaws thing. Thanks for adding the details on that. I totally meant to, but forgot. That was a new bit to me, so maybe just a little bit of Wilcrew fun?

I suppose it’s true for nearly all of the shows I write about here, but for some reason I feel a particular need to add a disclaimer to this attempt at a recap. That is to say, I know that whatever drivel I concoct for Ye Olde Via Chicago is always from my own perspective but I do endeavo(u)r to be as objective as possible, report things as they happened and give some sense of the perceived vibe of a given venue and/or audience and possibly offer some historical context and that sort of thing. So as Wilco finally brought this two-set, “Evening With…” format to Chicago on a lightly

I assume you meant “intimate.” If so, yeah, that one came to mind as well (though in kind of a different way).

For any avid schedule-watchers who might have wondered why Wilco didn’t add a second show at Chicago’s Salt Shed this weekend when the first one sold out so quickly and there were empty dates before and after, I guess tonight’s semi-secret benefit show at the intimate Old Town School of Folk Music is at least part of the answer. The roughly 400 or so folks who crammed into Maurer Hall for OTS’ annual Blue Jean Gala shelled out $500 apiece for an evening centered around a stripped-down set by our favorite alt-rocking sextet. I had the good fortune of being one of those in the room f

Once again, unfortunately, I had to sit this one out so I'm just doing the usual housekeeping here. Would be interested to hear reports from anyone who might have attended in person. I guess it was a big night for outdoor shows in the Cleveland area as I believe the very popular young jazz-pop singer Laufey also performed a sold-out show with the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls. Not sure if the audiences for the two shows would have much overlap (though I, for one, am a fan of both), but if anything, I bet it brought the average age at the Wilco show even higher t

Hey Paul, I wish I would have known you were gonna be there. Would have loved to say hi in person. It's been too long! I didn't know you were originally from upstate NY! Guess you ended up pretty far from there eventually. Glad you were able to make it make for the show, though. I bet that place must've been pretty amazing as a young music fan back in the day. Sounds like you got to see just about everybody who was touring in those days. I'm jealous! And yeah, glad you mentioned the Live Nation thing too. It's sad (IMHO) that a huge corporate entity like that has taken over so many

Thanks,. Wasn’t quite close enough to see exactly what happened.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to this show, but I know that at least a couple of VCers were in attendance so hopefully at least one of them will chime in and give us a little bit of a report. For now, though, here was the setlist as provided by the fine folks at Wilcoworld (they don't specify where the set break was, but according to Setlist.fm, it came after California Stars; I'm also making a couple of educated assumptions about arrangements, etc.): Set 1 Story To Tell Handshake Drugs Pittsburgh If I Ever Was A Child Cruel Country Forget The

Sorry for the delay in posting — the Philly report is now complete, and I wanted to mention that it was great to see so many familiar faces, or at least to know that so many were in attendance — but I was way too busy losing half my brain to said debauchery...wink, wink.